More Christmas Greetings (4)

More Greetings shared by members of the Mercy family for Christmas 2016

?Feliz Navidad! Joyful Christmas!

A refugee family displaced within their own country, excluded when they come to their new place, and forced to flee again to safety in another country; wise ones who include poor and dirty shepherds, foreigners whom the rulers want to use against their own people, and an old man and old woman committed to their faith tradition but first to believe that a new moment has come – as we read the Christmas story, these images are sometimes replaced by other real but more comforting images: angel voices singing sweetly, a young mother kissing her newborn baby, shepherds and kings kneeling before that baby, and animals gazing on the peaceful scene.

Stage 3 of our Mercy International Reflection Process invited us to place our reality into dialogue with our tradition. What happens when we integrate those images of refugees, poor shepherds, unwelcomed foreigners and old people with images of angel voices, a loving mother, citizens and immigrants coming together, and an inclusive creation community? How does such a conscious connection help in our struggle to respond to the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor? Luke (2:19) tells us about one who struggled to understand the realities of pain and joy, promise and fear, beauty and destruction in her time, “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

Through our reflection process this past year, we, too, have treasured our realities and pondered them in our hearts. May the fruits of our pondering be wisdom to see the realities around us, courage to dare to respond to them in the midst of our own vulnerabilities, creativity in deepening our partnerships, certainty that we have among us the strength to make a difference and trust that Emmanuel remains God with us.